Golf in Nevada

Nevada and golf are synonymous. In fact, with more than 100 courses throughout the state, Nevada is truly a golfer’s paradise. From championship courses such as the 36-hole Las Vegas Paiute Resort to casual, recreational links like the nine-hole Brookside Golf Course in Reno, Nevada has endless recreational options for golfers.
In Southern Nevada, there are more than 50 courses within two hours of Las Vegas including three dozen in the immediate area. The courses range from publicly owned and operated links to private clubs that are limited to members and guests.
Among the newer courses in Southern Nevada: the Rhodes Ranch Country Club and the Royal Links Golf Club.
The venerable Desert Inn Golf Club, established in 1952, is one of the hosts of the annual PGA Las Vegas Invitational in October, along with two private courses, the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin and the Las Vegas Country Club.
Several other Southern Nevada communities have also established themselves as golf Mecca’s including: Boulder City, located 23 miles southeast of Las Vegas; Henderson /Green Valley, 13 miles southeast of Las Vegas; Laughlin, 95 miles southeast of Las Vegas; Mesquite, 79 miles northeast of Las Vegas; Primm, 43 miles southwest of Las Vegas; and Pahrump, which is 62 miles west of Las Vegas.
The Reno-Lake Tahoe region offers more than 50 golf courses within an hour of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport including the Wolf Run Golf Club, the Golf Club at Genoa Lakes, the Resort at Squaw Creek, and the Golf Club at Whitehawk Ranch. In the Reno area, courses include not only the state’s oldest links – the Washoe County Golf Course, which was established in 1934 – but several of the most recent courses such as Arrow Creek, Red Hawk, and Monteux, all of which opened in the past few years. The latter is a private course that is also home of the Reno/Tahoe Open, a new stop on the PGA tour.
The Carson City area, south of Reno, offers what it calls the “Divine Nine”. These nine courses encompass about 70.000 yards of green and roughs and include the Dayton Valley Country Club, Empire Ranch, and the new Sierra Nevada Golf Ranch.
At Lake Tahoe, golfers try not to be distracted by the lake’s natural beauty while attempting to sink a long putt. Lake Tahoe offers a dozen championship courses including Edgewood Tahoe on the south shore of the lake. Edgewood is the site of the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in July and is rated one of Golf Digest’s top 25 public US golf courses.
In the more rural parts of Nevada, golfers will find plenty of wide-open spaces into which they can slice or hook. Courses range from Hawthorne’s Walker Lake Country Club, one of the state’s most picturesque nine-hole courses with its mature, towering elms, to the Mason Valley Country Club in Yerington, which recently expanded to 18 holes.
A couple of the state’s most unusual golf courses are Burning Sands at Empire, a nine-hole public course in the center of town, where green fees are a $10 donation, and the Sandy Bottoms Golf Course in Gabbs, the state’s only all-clay, free course. Playing Sandy Bottoms is kind of like playing at entire round in sand traps.